Blasting with glass beads

OLD AS I

OLD AS I

Senior Member
I had the opportunity to get bags, I mean bags of glass beads used on road line painting, this material is poured on the wet line painting to provide the reflectiveness at night. Has anyone ever used this as a blasting media. Don't know what size the beads are. Would like to know what size nozzle to use and what air pressure to set at, been on Google but seems everything is based on size of bead. Trying to Google glass beads for line painting but not able to get size of beads to use. Any help greatly appreciated, ..... cheers
 
On the serious side, I have a four containers of glass beads specifically intended for bead blasting. I think they are #80. I can't be sure because I don't have a container handy (they're up at my shop). If you don't get a reasonable answer by tomorrow, get back to me and I'll try to get you some more information. I just blasted an 8BA starter plate and they worked great! I think it might be possible to put a micrometer on a single bead and measure it.
 
I don't think I'd over think this. Air blowing a substance through a hole. Are the glass beads bigger than a sand particle? Give a small batch a try....I'd guess they'll work just fine.
 
tubman said:
I think it might be possible to put a micrometer on a single bead and measure it.
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C'mon, those beads are friggen' itsy-bitsy. How are you possibly gonna measure them? You just indicated that your eyesight ain't too swift trying to see that 8BA in the picture. Seriously, glass beads for blastin' are just a little bigger than dust. DD
 
Eyesight has nothing to do with it. My micrometer goes to less than .001; I'll bet I can measure it. If your glass beads are a "little bigger than dust", they have probably been through the cycle several times and are worn out. I am talking about new beads that have never been through the system.
 
Hi; The pro's use calibrated screens for separation by size. Some air compressor shops have them. I use #70 sand and it is very fine. I'd grab those highway bags and ask questions later. newc
 
Use what ever you are using now to grit blast. Don't over-think nozzle sizes and air pressure.
Glass beads that are used for reflective line painting are not held to the same size tolerance standards as production beads.
There can be a wide range of bead sizes in one bag (.005"-.035" as an example)
The #80 grit beads that I have been using measure .010" (well within the .0065"-.0115" tolerance for that grade of bead)
 
I have used glass media for blasting for years. Glass media is measured like any other media just like sand paper it could be any number of grit. Your best bet would be to compare it to a known media grit to determine what you have.
 
Make sure you wear a respirator. If the beads are extremely small they may not get trapped by whatever dust collector you are using. I never use my blaster no matter what I'm using, glass, garnet, etc without my respirator that I use when shooting isocyonate hardened paint with pre filter dust shields.
 
I use glass beads for aluminum. Crushed glass for inital cleaning then the large road beads you have as final blast. Gives a shine to the aluminum.
 
If you use glass beads to clean contacting mechanical parts be certain to pressure wash the part after basting or you will find glass beads are still stuck to it and you will QUICKLY have a surface that will be screwed up too bad to use. Don't ask me how I know.
 
I just did a entire 32 3 window coupe with just what you described. I was able to reuse them 3 times for this paint stripping process . Inside and outside , I used 125 PSI air pressure off a small portable sandblasting pot and the body turned out perfect. As mentioned to wear proper PPE. It is a bit slower process but chances of damaging sheet metal is much less than ground media.
Vic
 
I have the same thing from the same place. It is very fine glass and when I blasted my Weind intake it cleaned it up and left a nice soft sheen. It was not aggressive at all. And I thought I was the only one to use road glass! Go figure.
Regards, Don
 
The key difference between glass bead media and sand is the shape and hardness of the particle. Sand can be a harder particle and more jagged on it's edges to start with. Glass leaves a nicer finish where sand can be too aggressive. Glass gets more fine as it breaks up with use so the cleaning process will slow with particle wear. If the glass bead is a course consistency, it will get finer with use as it breaks down.
 
I seem to remember that glass beads should be used at a lower pressure than other blasting media to prevent it from wearing out too fast.
 
PeteVS
Yes glass beading posses the same health issues as silica and for that matter all blasting posses possible health issues if not proper PPE is warn.
Glass beads break down no matter what pressure you blast at . The pressure determines as how fast the beads do break down and how fast the process takes. The higher the pressure the faster the job goes and also the faster the glass brakes down. When I used highway beads I ran my compressor at 125 psi and got 3 cycles of use out of the beads . With each cycle the blasting process became slower then the previous usage.
Vic
 
Oh forgot to mentioned that when blasting , a regular particulate mask under the blasting hood is not adequate for protection. I use my painting mask with filters with a tight face fit under my blasting hood. With this stuff it is just like painting you never can be to careful.
Vic
 
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